Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ Leads Billboard Hot 100 for Second Week
Brenda Lee spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with her holiday standard “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” A week earlier, the song led the list for the first time – 65 years after its release – and became Lee’s third Hot 100 No. 1, and her first since 1960.
Lee – who celebrates a birthday today (Dec. 11), as she turns 79 years young – reminisced to Billboard on Dec. 4 about recording the carol, when she was 13, after learning of its ascent to No. 1 at last from Universal Music Group Nashville chair/CEO Cindy Mabe. “The producer cut the air way down in the studio,” Lee recalled. “He had a big Christmas tree and everyone was there – the Anita Kerr Singers and the ‘A-team’ [of Nashville studio musicians], as we called them. It was like a little touch of magic kind of sprinkled in, and it turned out to be magic. It really did.”
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The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Dec. 16, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 12). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” on Decca/MCA Nashville/UMe, drew 41.3 million streams (up 18%) and 20.5 million radio airplay audience impressions (down 1%) and sold 6,000 downloads (up 109%) in the Dec. 1-7 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The single holds at No. 1 for a third total week atop the Streaming Songs chart, after it first ruled the last frame of the 2022 holiday season; rebounds to its No. 4 high, from No. 12, on Digital Song Sales; and keeps at No. 33 on Radio Songs, where it has hit a No. 17 best.
The song was originally recorded and released in 1958. Written by Johnny Marks and produced by Owen Bradley, it first hit the Hot 100 in December 1960 and reached an original No. 14 peak two weeks later. It went on to spend nine weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 between December 2019 and last holiday season.
For its 65th anniversary this year, Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” received its first official video, featuring cameos from country stars Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood, Nov. 3. Plus, Lee performed it on NBC’s Christmas at the Opry, which aired Dec. 7. She has also joined TikTok, where she’s been sharing posts about the song and her career.
The song is just the third holiday No. 1 ever on the Hot 100, with all three now having led for multiple weeks. “The Chipmunk Song,” by The Chipmunks with David Seville, also from 1958, spent four weeks on top beginning that December, and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, has notched 12 weeks at No. 1, from its first scaling of the summit in December 2019 through last holiday season.
With another week at No. 1, Lee extends her record for the longest span of an artist topping the Hot 100: 63 years and five months, from her first week at No. 1 with “I’m Sorry” (July 18, 1960) through the latest list.
Plus, Lee, at 79 years of age as of today, expands by another week her mark as the senior-most artist to have ruled the Hot 100.
Meanwhile, Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” leads the multi-metric Holiday 100 chart, which uses the same methodology as the Hot 100, for a second week.
Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” repeats at No. 2 on the Hot 100, with across-the-board gains in streams (38.5 million, up 19%), airplay (24.1 million, up 12%) and sales (5,000, up 29%). With its 2019 triumph, Carey claimed her 19th Hot 100 No. 1, extending her record for the most among soloists and moving to within one of The Beatles’ overall record 20. The single also reigns as the No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs retrospective.
Next up among holiday songs on the Hot 100, two carols return to their best ranks: Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (4-3), from 1957, and Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (5-4), from 1984.
Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” slips 3-5 on the Hot 100, two weeks after it became his third No. 1. Still, the chart’s top nonholiday song wins the list’s top Airplay Gainer award for a second consecutive week (37.7 million, up 26%, as it becomes his third top 10 on Radio Songs, surging 17-10), while also increasing in streams (27.6 million, up 10%). It concurrently tops the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a fourth week each.
Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is steady at No. 6 on the Hot 100, with the 1964 nugget having hit a No. 4 high.
Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” holds at No. 7 on the Hot 100, following four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in October. It also rebounds for a seventh week atop Radio Songs (63.6 million, down 3%) – surpassing the six-week reign of “Blank Space” in 2014-15 as the sole longest-leading No. 1 of Swift’s eight career leaders on the airplay chart.
Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” originally released in 1963, lifts 10-8 on the Hot 100. The late singer now sports a record span of 64 years, two months and one week from his first week in the top 10 with “Lonely Street” in October 1959 through his latest frame. (Excluding holiday fare, The Beatles broke the record for the longest top 10 span last month: 59 years, nine months and three weeks, from “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964 to the debut of their newly-released single “Now and Then.”)
SZA’s “Snooze” keeps at No. 9 on the Hot 100’s top 10, after reaching No. 2, as it leads the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs chart for a 19th week. As noted Dec. 9, upon the one-year anniversary of the release of parent album SOS, “Snooze” is the only song to have appeared on the Hot 100 each week in 2023 to date.
Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” descends 8-10, after it led for three nonconsecutive weeks beginning in September.
Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on Billboard’s social accounts, and all charts (dated Dec. 16), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 12).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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